Umm..this is a bit embarrassing, before I asked for help I had the audacious idea to blame heat treat for my apparent lack of sharpening skills, sure glad I didn't. I feel a little silly that the solution was so simple though.
I gave my ZDP Stretch 20 LIGHT passes on the corner of the white stones and 30 LIGHT passes on the flats and I'll be buggered, hairs are flying off my arm and it is whittling slithers off free standing arm hair with no burr to be found.
Thanks again guy's I was getting ready to sell this one and let some other poor bastard deal with it....but she's a keeper now, I'm off to deal with my ZDP Caly now.
Cheers,
Jim
The other week I was sharpening a bunch of kitchen knives while doing volunteer work for a Bible college (big youth retreat, 300+ people to feed).
When you're stuck with an old two grit stone and nothing else, you get to learn to put a shaving edge on stuff without the fancy 1000 grit ceramics.
Supposedly you can get 60 grit to shave if you're good.
Remember that if you use less pressure the grit will not scratch the steel as deeply. With a lot of patience you can get some good polish with a pretty low grit.